Knowing The Facts Will Influence The Conversation

The original proposal for the new hospital was released by the task force in November 2012. It was subtitled A public conversation on the future of hospital services in Windsor-Essex.

The task force concluded the report by referring to input from the region.

In summary, the task force was most impressed by the strong level of endorsement and enthusiasm in the Windsor Essex region for the development of a new single site acute care hospital.

However, the community wasn’t yet told that the current hospitals would close, but rather the opposite, according to a January 2013, Windsor Star article entitled Mega-hospital unlikely to force closure of current hospital sites.

[The hospital committee] made it clear it’s not anticipated that either the current Windsor Regional Hospital or Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital sites will be fully shut down. (Battagello, Windsor Star, 24 January 2013)

The public conversation would have been different, over the course of two years, had the community been privy to the July, 2015, information provided directly from David Musyj and the hospital.

Once the mega-hospital is built, Windsor Regional Hospital’s Met Campus … will closed and be emptied and razed. (CBC, 16 July 2015)

The old Hotel Dieu building, presently called the Ouellette Campus … will be demolished in around a decade from now, once patients and equipment are moved to the new mega hospital. (Wolter, Windsorite, 16 July 2015)

There will also be an Urgent Care Clinic at the former Grace Hospital site but, according to Windsor Regional Hospital website, “The UCC is not meant for patients with life-threatening issues … The UCC will not accept patients by ambulance … The UCC is open approximately 18 hours-a-day (peak volume) with the ability to extend hours if necessary.”

No wonder many people still don’t know that the Met and Ouellette campuses will be demolished. I wonder how they’d feel if they did.

4 Commentson "Knowing The Facts Will Influence The Conversation"

My question is how can we buy land for a new MEGA hospital that has not been approved for this area yet by the Provincial Liberal government. Remember this is an NDP area and I don’t think the Wynn Liberal government is in any hurry to approve this MEGA hospital for our area. I see it as more tax dollars have been wasted and we have nothing to show for it except an open field that we the taxpayers over paid for it.

John: I believe most people tend to see it as too late. I only started to realize lately that most of the public doesn’t even know about this, let alone agreeing to it. As far as too late, shovels are no where near the ground, expenses so far are about $37.5 million but that is trivial compared to making a $2 billion mistake. If the government caused a change of heart no one would notice the expense so I think it is only right citizens demand this is restarted before more is wasted on this. It will most likely be drastically changed by successive governments, municipal and provincial. I have to assume not all politicians are unreasonable.

The open an transparent process that WRH touts could not be further from the truth. Canvas any given neighbourhood throughout the city and ask if people know what’s happening with their hospitals and it’s a very sad situation. People are shocked to hear the truth! CAMPP’s lawnsign campaign to encourage the province to halt this irresponsible process and rethink the entire plan is growing each and every day growing simply letting people know that Windsor’s access to hospital care is being greatly diminished in order to promote a new housing/health/business district out past the airport. We need to stand strong together against this proposal. Stand up to our city and provincial leaders. Speak out, ask CAMMP for a lawnsign and speak to your neighbours about this proposal and how it will jeopardize the vitality of the city and our neighbourhoods.